March 17, 2006

Brand Naming: The Alphabet Soup of Naming

I’m pleased that the March 17th Wall Street Journal article, When a Drug Maker Creates a New Pill, Uncle Sam Vets Name, has shed light on the challenges and difficulties of developing a new drug brand name.

It’s fair to say that naming a new drug is likely the most challenging of naming assignments. However, I think those of us in the brand naming game could say that about most of naming assignments since clients seem to want short, evocative names, that are trademarkable, and agreeable to management up the food chain within the organization.

With anywhere from 240-280,000 U.S. Trademark applications per year and only 80,000 words in the typical college dictionary, this makes our work challenging, interesting, rewarding, and most of all, fun. I’m reminded of the famous Confucious saying, “Find something you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” That’s how the Strategic Name Development team feels about its work.